Vintage Windmill and Wind Generator Forum

Hello All,

On a Vintage Buying & Selling cross country trip from So. California to New York, with multiple stops along the way (I’m big into vintage appliances), I found a 32v Windcharger just outside of Denver.
I have always been fascinated with Windmills, acquiring bits and pieces, but never a whole one. California and Arizona of plenty of Windmills, but they are expensive to acquire and not the proliferation of the Midwest. On my way back on this trip, I was fascinated to see so many, still running windmills on the cattle farms along the highway that I passed by. Then, on the way back, I found a nice older gentleman along a county Road in Elizabeth, Colorado. He presented me with a 32 V and a 6 V.. I chose the 32 V because it looked to be the most complete.

Please check out the pics I’ve included. Can you tell me maybe what model I have? Am I missing anything to get it running? I sure would like to acquire some type of assembly manual. any information you can provide, would be extremely helpful and I thank you.[/img]

More pics..

Wincharger Mike is your man on this forum

It’s the first 32v Wincharger mfg beginning in 1936. Looks mostly complete. I didn’t see a stub tower in your pics and the controller is for a 6V. You can find this entire brochure for that model at the link below. Nice that the cast iron cone is there. It was common for those to fall off and break. I’ll scan a manual and post here on the forum….been meaning to do that for some time.
https://wincharger.com/index.php/promos/advertising

650 W Wincharger manual

viewtopic.php?t=2988

Mike. Placerville is on the way to Denver. I wish you could’ve stopped by. I would have been happy to provide you with room and board. We could’ve talked to Windmills till well after sunset.

Tom , glad you helped clean ouy the lifetime collection of windchqarges in San Carlos , he had a LOT of cool stuff .
My son lives in San Carlos & I tried to get him to go look but didnt work out , so glad it all went to a good home .
Maybe you can post a couple of pictures of what you found .
Mike B
New Braunfels TX

Sandxssun it's nice to see you found this forum, we spoke briefly on Facebook but I'll answer you here.
That's a nice early wincharger, I had seen the ad on marketplace but it was too far away for me to purchase the unit. It looks like you have the slip-ring assembly and lolly-shaft, so it should be fairly straightforward to build your own tower if you are so inclined. You will also need a pull-out winch to stop the plant when the battery is charged.
There isn't anything fancy about the original controller, if you just want it to make power you can put four bends in a piece of sheet-metal similar to the 6 volt controller, and paint it black. Install an amp-meter, generator fuse, and a high current diode with heatsink on the Gen. positive.
Terminal posts can be made with brass machine hardware with rubber or fiber washers to insulate them from the panel, make sure the diode and heatsink are insulated too.

Here is a photo of the controller I made for my solar panels:

mtblah wrote: Mon Jan 06, 2025 7:59 am Tom , glad you helped clean ouy the lifetime collection of windchqarges in San Carlos , Viberate he had a LOT of cool stuff . this
My son lives in San Carlos & I tried to get him to go look but didnt work out , so glad it all went to a good home .
Maybe you can post a couple of pictures of what you found .
Mike B
New Braunfels TX

yeah awesome you helped clear out that lifetime stash of windchargers